Boat Builder Central - Builder Forums

Hi Dave, Happy to hear you're a long way from the storm, and on higher ground. There are a lot of reasons for taking on an absolutely insane and brutal rebuild. After the divorce and selling the beach house I had a limited budget to work with and was determined to be mortgage free. Could never afford the beach again but didn't want to be too far from the ocean, and also needed to be a reasonable distance from my favored boat ramps. I found an acre of undeveloped land a little further from the beach and ramps than I'd like, but doable. Two negatives were the cost of sight prep; Clearing, fill, impact fees, septic, well, etc., so the empty land would eat up half or more of my budget. The other problem would have been how much time it would take and the cost of building a small house. Even the price of a double wide manufactured home was ridiculous. I eventually decided that the location of the shack was as perfect as I could hope for under the circumstances; 15-20 minutes from the ramps and beach, Lowe's and H. Depot, my mom's, and centrally located between the 3 towns I've always worked, and as far as I'm willing to drive for work. Also, it's a small piece of property, and the house is small and close to the street, which allowed room for a 24x36' garage and a garden. Oh, did I mention I'm a mental case that likes to torture himself? One last thing that I really love, my taxes this year are $182.00. Not bad.

Really nice work SeaSlug!!! Jeff

seaslug , how wide is the pine flooring , and any problems with cupping ? I am two years into the design process for a new build in a beach subdivision , that's about done so I will grit my teeth and start the permit process . I am going to have some longleaf milled this fall for upstairs flooring and ceiling , I would like to go wide but I am concerned with anything over 6" cupping .

Absolutely amazing but not a surprise based on the boats you've built or taken on. Craftsmanship like you have is an art form!!

Thanks again for all the nice compliments. Rick, the pine I used are 5" wide and kiln dried, but I did the installation prior to the house having the air conditioning running. It all stayed perfectly flat and tight for over a year and then there was some shrinkage and I have gaps about every 5-8 boards, some as wide as 1/4." I can't believe it happened after so much time, but I guess the boards still had some water in them and it's usually pretty humid here. But between the AC and heating with wood in the winter it just took that much time for some of the boards to shrink. I'm not sure what to do but I might cut skinny little rips and glue them in and refinish the floors. I also noticed that even my 1 1/4" thick hickory countertops shrunk just enough to open up the caulk joint against the wall. Oh well, I wanted the old beach cottage look, so I guess it's working out as planned.

rick berrey wrote: ↑Tue Sep 20, 2022 11:32 am seaslug , how wide is the pine flooring , and any problems with cupping ? I am two years into the design process for a new build in a beach subdivision , that's about done so I will grit my teeth and start the permit process . I am going to have some longleaf milled this fall for upstairs flooring and ceiling , I would like to go wide but I am concerned with anything over 6" cupping .

rick I would not go anything over 6" as it is newly cut. Here is a source of new long leaf pine and they have an installation instruction guide for it. It is a pretty interesting site for me as I had never worked with LLP. The Buyers Guide has the installation instructions in it. https://countryplank.com/southern-longl ... -flooring/ Good luck with your house building and wishing the best for you.

A couple last questions, are you cutting and planning these boards yourself or do you have a sawmill lined up? If a sawmill they can probably tongue and groove them for you making a much better assembly for you.

Last when you stack for drying this fall make sure you allow plenty of drying space, first underneath 1' and then between each layer of wood 2" with 2" between each plank. Keep them covered overhead, maybe 2-3' from the elements but air flowing through the structure.

Tom

Thanks Tom , the trees are too large for me to haul so I will have someone come in with a portable mill and rough cut the logs on my land to boards , it wont be but two or three trees , $150 an hour 4 hr min . There is a small mill to the north of me that will kiln dry and plain into flooring or whatever i want . Once you get past 6" there can be issues with cupping on pine flooring , I would like 8" and may gamble that there will be less cupping on mature longleaf flooring . The last condo I finished out had a number of upper units with " old growth hardwood pine " , it was reclaimed pine , it had too many knots to be longleaf , and it was not tongue and groove . The flooring company had it stored in a common storage shed , they brought into the units and installed it without letting it climatize . There were 3 dehumidifiers in each unit so the flooring ended up with 1/4" gaps when it dried out . It was the Developer,s wood and green idea so they allowed the company to sand the wood down and epoxy fill the cracks with the wood dust . We had to replace a floor around 12x12 that had gotten wet , cost 13k , the floors looked like crap , and the wood used was sub grade , but over the years I have found some people will pay for what others don't have , even if it,s a rip off . Wood flooring should really set in your house a few weeks before installing it , if it is setting in an AC cooled show room going to your ac cooled room you are ok , if it is setting in a hot humid warehouse going to your ac cooled room you are not ok .

rick that is a shame about those condos. About you going to 8" I would be wary, I am on the cautious side after seeing what some of my dad's work has done when he pushed the limits, he just redid it as he was a perfectionist. But if properly kiln dried and acclimated in the house after close in and furnace/ac working at normal temps for 2-3 weeks it may be fine.

Tom

Seaslug, I can't tell you how I envy your energy and craftsmanship! Congrats, what an awesome project!

Wow! Beautiful work. It looks like an amazing place to reside. Enjoy!